Minus Tide - Fairly Good, Based on 4 Critics

The 405 - 80Based on rating 8/10

80

Head here to submit your own review of this album. Take a look at the cover of Lemonade's third album, Minus Tide; that bluest of blue water, you can feel it lap at your ankles almost immediately. The next thought is where that water is located: poolside or tiding on to a beach, it's somewhere warm and where your mind heads next is the warmth of the sun on your back, on your head, on your face.

Some records get the critical and commercial success they deserve, some don't. In 2012, Brooklyn trio Lemonade released their second album, Diver, a radical 180 that found them rebooting their sound from spasmodic post-punk-funk to breezy ambient R&B-pop. The timing couldn't have been better, considering that Diver coincided nicely with the PBR&B rage.

When Brooklyn-via-San Francisco indie trio Lemonade released their self-titled debut full-length in 2008, the band was an oozing, lawless organism pumping out dance-minded, post-punk-influenced semi-improvised fits of rhythm and noise that felt like a rave being taken over by acid-crazed record nerds. Their sound changed rapidly, morphing over the course of 2010's Pure Moods EP and 2012's full-length Diver into more tropical, sample-friendly electopop. Third album Minus Tide follows this trajectory even further into synth pop territory, still basing their tunes on intricate rhythms but eschewing the tribal feel of their early work for the more tropical electronic pulses that drive every song.

Propelled by decadent, dance floor-ready albums by Ratatat, Crystal Castles, and Lindstrøm, 2008 was a hallmark year for indie electronica. Disco revivalism reigned supreme. As if to cement that resurgence, Lemonade dropped their self-titled debut, with bold, relentless tracks like “Big Weekend’ and “Real Slime” signaling plenty of promise for the Brooklyn-via-San Francisco trio.